Verizon tops list of biggest New York companies

Verizon Communications Inc. brought in just under $111 billion in revenue in 2011, giving it the top spot on amNew York's Top Companies list.

Right behind are two Wall Street titans: JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. each posted more than $100 billion in revenue.

The list would have shaken out differently a year ago, when JPMorgan and Citi both posted annual revenues bigger than Verizon's. But the megabanks saw their sales slide in 2011, while Verizon notched a 4 percent revenue gain to take the top spot.

"Banks are facing revenue pressures across all lines of business," says James Sinegal, the director of financial services research at Morningstar Inc. To compile our list, amNew York asked Standard & Poor's to plow through its database and produce stats on companies that list their headquarters as New York or Queens counties.

The numbers weren't limited to sales: Standard & Poor's helped calculate which companies are the most valuable, most profitable, and have produced the best returns for investors.

Which of the city's companies do investors value most? That's measured by the companies' "market capitalization," which is the number of shares of stock held by investors, times the price of each share at the end of August. The market capitalization gives an idea of what it would cost to buy the entire company.

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc., which reported $67 billion in sales in 2011, has a market capitalization of almost $180 billion, making it the most valuable company in the city.

Tobacco company Philip Morris International Inc., which posted 2011 sales of $31 billion, and JPMorgan are next at about $160 billion and $140 billion, respectively. Verizon is the only other company valued above $100 billion, with a market capitalization of about $125 billion.

Here are some of the other champions among the Top Companies:

Top stock performance: Macquarie Infrastructure Co. LLC, which provides a wide range of industrial services, from aircraft parking to fuel storage and waste disposal, is up more than 900 percent over the three years ending Aug. 15. The stock traded for less than $1 at the depths of the financial crisis but tops $40 today.

Biggest profits: JPMorgan, with almost $19 billion in net income in 2011. Insurer American International Group Inc., Citigroup and Pfizer also posted profits in excess of $10 billion.

Fastest-growing: Steel Partners Holdings, a limited partnership that's one of the smallest companies on the list with just $722 million, boosted its sales by two-thirds from 2010. Shares in the partnership, which has its headquarters on Madison Avenue, are available on the New York Stock Exchange.

Nine other companies grew sales by at least one-third from 2010 to 2011, led by shoemaker Steven Madden Ltd., which recorded a 50 percent sales boost last year.